22.12.2021

Mobile home from an old trailer. DIY Trailer for Travel - Communities ›Do It Yourself› Blog ›Caravan Walls Set (Materials, Technology)

Many lovers of free rest dream of traveling in a mobile home, so as not to be dependent on purchasing tickets, booking hotels and being tied to one point during the entire vacation. A mobile home is both a home and a vehicle. It allows you to travel with maximum comfort and stop wherever you want on the road. In addition, it can be used as a dwelling in the country or during the construction of a house.

A mobile home today can be purchased ready-made, although it is quite an expensive pleasure. But it is much more interesting and cheaper to make it with your own hands from an old vehicle, re-equipping its interior or making such a motorhome practically from scratch, not counting the basics. For this, in addition to the "wheels" themselves, you will need not only funds for re-equipment and a variety of tools, but also certain skills of such work, as well as a lot of effort and free time.

Attention! Before investing in the re-equipment of a vehicle, you need to find out all the nuances of its registration in the relevant authorities in order to avoid any problems during registration. Otherwise, it is unlikely that it will be possible to use such transport for travel, and it will settle as a dead weight somewhere in the country.

A decent-sized mobile home can come from a large van, but such a mobile home is too expensive a vehicle. Among the budget options that are quite suitable for those who like to craft whatever they want with their own hands, there are three most convenient. So, a mobile home can be made from:

Gazelles;
old bus;
trailer with a sturdy chassis.

House from the car Gazelle

To implement any of these three options, in addition to the presence of the vehicle itself, which will be taken as a basis, a plan for the future motorhome will be required, at least in a schematic form. Such a plan will take into account all the design features and plan a living area with maximum comfort for finding there. It can be simply drawn on paper or done on a computer, if that's more convenient.

Internal communications of a mobile home

Without electricity, water and gas, life in a mobile home can hardly be called comfortable. A rechargeable battery and a charger are usually used to provide the room with electricity. The wiring inside must be thought out in advance. Do not forget about the external connector to charge the battery, which are of different capacities. The most suitable battery capacity also needs to be calculated in advance, taking into account the load and the travel distance.

Interior design of a mobile home

Gas cylinders are often used to heat a room. Gas will also be convenient for cooking, which is much more profitable in terms of consumption than a stove from electricity. The presence of a kitchen in such a house implies the installation of a hood above the stove and the organization of a general ventilation system, which is especially important when using propane.

Advice. You should not undertake independent gasification and power supply of the premises in the absence of the necessary knowledge and experience, it is better to entrust such work to professionals. The safety of people in the motorhome directly depends on how competently they are carried out.

The kitchen will not be able to function without water, which is usually stored in containers, where a submersible pump is lowered to supply it to the tap. To drain the used water, a reservoir is also used, which is attached either indoors or outside. If desired, the mobile home can also be equipped with a small shower. But the usual bathroom in a mobile home cannot be made; a dry closet is used in this capacity.

RV kitchen area

As for furniture, it is better if all of it in a mobile home is practical and compact, because there is not too much space for placing it. Variants of reclining berths, sliding tables and the like organization of space can be used. And all this must be securely fastened to the walls in order to ensure safety when moving. Furniture for arrangement can be purchased ready-made, but for a person with hands it is easy to make it yourself, taking into account the size of the room, and make a sofa and chairs, for example, from car seats.

It is quite possible to equip the interior space in a mobile home, and all this can be done on your own. But before that you need to prepare the room. Depending on which option is taken - a minibus or a trailer, there will be differences in the stages of work required for the conversion.

Mobile home from Gazelle or old bus

Re-equipment of a minibus begins with cleaning the body from upholstery and seats, after which various holes are made - for windows, ventilation, for gas supply.

Mobile house from the bus

Then work on the arrangement of the residential area is performed in the following sequence:

even out the dents on the inner surface, then primer all open metal parts of the body to prevent corrosion on them;
the inner surface of the future house, including walls, floor and ceiling, is covered with thermal insulation;
on top of the insulating material, starting from the ceiling, moisture-resistant plywood or carpet is laid.

Upon completion of these works, electrification and gasification of the premises, kitchen and bathroom equipment, furniture installation are carried out. For reliable installation of furniture, plywood of a larger thickness is attached to the walls than on the floor or ceiling, or separate reinforced strips are placed to fix it. And, of course, if necessary, you need to put in order the chassis and engine of the Gazelle or the old bus, then such a house will become truly mobile.

Trailer-based mobile home

Here, unlike a house made from a minibus, the work is somewhat different. First you need to protect the chassis from corrosion by cleaning and painting them. Then you will have to build the floor, walls, ceiling and roof, acting in the following sequence:

put plywood of sufficient thickness on the frame, surround the outer edge with a bar and fasten with bolts;

Trailer-based home flooring

lay the beams on the floor, fixing heat-insulating material between them and close it all on top with plywood;
for the construction of walls, timber and lining are used, not forgetting in the process of work to make openings for windows and doors, as well as technological holes for the entrance and exit of various communications;
for the construction of the roof, install the rafters, sheathe them with plywood, covering them with moisture-resistant material on top;

Building walls

after laying the electrical wiring, make thermal insulation of the walls, then closing the fiberboard on top;
to protect wooden walls, prime them inside and out, and then paint them in two layers;
install a door and windows, additional interior decoration may be required.

Upon completion of these works, you can also think about gasification, water supply, organizing a kitchen and a bathroom, installing furniture. Then all that remains is to put on the fenders and headlights that the trailer comes with, and the mobile home is ready to travel.

Be sure to obtain permits before setting off in your RV

Traveling in a mobile home, of course, is very convenient. However, before starting construction, decide for yourself whether you can independently master all the work, because they will require quite a lot of effort, money and skills.

DIY mobile home: video

Let us omit, you do not need to drive straight through peat bogs, but it is quite enough that a trailer or self-propelled camper can withstand a multi-day trip on bumpy roads with half-wheel pits, bumpy graders and mountain dirt roads with boulders sticking out of the roadbed without any health problems. Alas, it is not easy to find such equipment ready-made ...

But there is an old principle: "if you want something to be done well, do it yourself." This is exactly what Ruslan, an auto-traveler and blogger known on the Internet under the nickname "Off-Road", decided. In principle, he had no experience: at one time he was the chairman of the club of auto-travelers "Argonaut", was engaged in organizing mass trips and already had a good idea of what, in fact, he needed. But it is not enough to understand that mobile housing should be able to move not only on the asphalt and at the same time not crumble. The agony of choice does not end there ...

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The agony of choice

Actually, all off-road mobile homes can be divided into three groups. Firstly, these are self-propelled campers on an all-wheel drive chassis. This opens up a huge window of opportunity. You can take a "loaf" (which is now called UAZ SGR) or Sobol 4x4 and work closely with their internal arrangement. Alas, the internal volume of these vans is rather limited, and the problem of being able to stand in full growth arises, excuse the tautology, in full growth.

You can take an all-wheel drive chassis - say, UAZ Profi or Sobol 4x4 Farmer and build a house on this chassis. Also, in general, it will turn out "the house of the Pumpkin godfather" - the size of the cargo area of these cars is about 3 meters long and two meters wide, but you can use the space above the cab.

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Our popular mid-size pickups (Mitsubishi L200, Isuzu D-Max, Toyota Hilux) are not very suitable for such purposes: their cargo area is only 1.5 meters long and severely limits the possibilities of camper builders.

You can, of course, find a full-size American pickup, but it's expensive ... Or you can swing at the "large forms" and take as a basis, say, a medium-tonnage Sadko. By the way, its cargo platform has only slightly larger dimensions (compared to the UAZ Profi), but its off-road capabilities are at a height.

But all motorhomes have the same disadvantage. Just imagine: a person on a camper van goes on vacation with his family. We arrived, found a nice place on the shore of a taiga lake or with a beautiful view of a mountain valley, began to settle down, stretched out tents, laid out furniture ... And then it turns out that the meat was not bought, the salt ran out, the beer was forgotten, in the end ... the owner of the camper what are the options? Either he gives the family chairs and leaves them sitting in an open field (tents and awnings, of course, will have to be unhooked), and he hurries to the store in the nearest settlement, or they turn off camp and go to the store all together. The same collision arises when you want to see the sights in the immediate vicinity.

But if you have a trailer, then you simply uncouple the tractor, close the door and go light.

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My home is my castle

So Ruslan decided that he needed a trailer. But trailers capable of moving behind a tractor on the road are of two types. First, it is a tent trailer. As a rule, they are very compact, even a tiny Suzuki Jimny can tow them. By the way, such trailers called "Picnic" are also produced in our country, and they are relatively inexpensive, 250-300 thousand rubles. But ... Still, they are designed for operation in the summer: a kitchen module with a stove and a sink is usually made retractable, and the tent, the basis of which is the trailer, still needs to be set up: pull the stretchers, hammer in the pegs ... And without supervision, such a camp is not leave, and the deployment of the tent trailer is time. If a person has spent ten or even more hours driving, he wants only one thing - sleep, sleep and sleep again!

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This means, Ruslan decided, that only a rigid trailer, in everyday life a "caravan", meets his needs. Moreover, even in ready-made trailers of this kind, with which he had to deal, in order to bring the house from the transport position to the “bedroom” position, it is necessary to do a number of operations - to lower the table, shift the pillow-back to it, get the mattress, spread it, make the bed ... This time. So the basic concept was formed, and Ruslan got down to work.

Sleep immediately!

Ruslan bought Rama ready-made, but altered the suspension in the most radical way. I installed a new, reinforced axle with hubs from Mitsubishi Pajero and hydraulic brakes from it. Equipped the brake system with a manual drive, with which you can block the trailer wheels. The axle is suspended on springs from the Gazelle, which can be found anywhere, in any region. On the rear wall of the trailer there are two spare wheels, plus one more on the car. All wheels are the same and interchangeable, even the discs are the same. A working cylinder from the Volga is implanted into the drawbar, which drives the overrun brake. As a result, the trailer really overcame very serious obstacles in front of my eyes, and in order to overcome them, Ruslan had to use both winches installed on his Pajero III.

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The frame is made of an aluminum hollow profile, inside which a sprayed polyurethane insulation is pumped. The same insulation is used for thermal insulation of the main living space. It fills all the cracks and even penetrates the microcracks of the plywood from which the walls are made. As a result, the trailer remains as warm as a real thermos. In hot weather it is cool, and in frost it keeps warm for a long time. I confirm: while we were talking with Ruslan, the temperature overboard exceeded +26, but inside was cool. Considering all this, Ruslan did not bother with installing the air conditioner, deciding to rely on natural ventilation.

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Then it was time to deal with the main thing - that is, the internal arrangement. Based on the concept of "sleep - immediately!" Ruslan came up with a rather non-standard scheme for transforming a sleeping place: the bed is hidden behind the front inner wall. It turned out very conveniently: once a latch, two latches - and the bed goes down, where the spring mattress lies. Pay attention: not "foam", not foam rubber, but a full-fledged spring mattress bought in a furniture store. And there is already a sheet and a blanket. You just need to take a pillow from the shelf - and that's it, you can go to bed. In the morning I got up, threw the pillow on the shelf (by the way, this is not just a shelf, but quite a decent space in which you can organize another bed) and removed the bed along with the blanket, closing the latches.

Sometimes it's easier to carry cans

A folding table is fixed on the same wall. It has two positions. The first is a coffee table, and its size is quite enough for two people to have breakfast. Well, if you need a dining table, then the table is pushed forward, a support is placed under it, and a table top is obtained. The inhabitants sit on two voluminous lockers, and inside them there are isolated volumes, access to which is carried out from the outside of the trailer. It houses "dirty" equipment: tools, a welding machine and the like. Another such container, larger, is in the front. In principle, it can hold four bags with inflatable boats, but Ruslan has a gas cylinder, a fuel tank for a diesel heater and a generator there.

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In the middle of the trailer, on the wall to the left in the direction of travel, an absorption-type refrigerator is installed, which can be used to supply 220 V, 12 V and gas. Ruslan bought it second-hand, and in fact, he is not very happy with it. Like all absorption refrigerators, of course, it uses electricity very economically, but there is a nuance. The system is not filled with freon, but a mixture of water and ammonia, which gradually begins to crystallize in the coil. Ammonia in the system becomes less and less, and the apparatus ceases to perform its main function. The only salvation is to pull out the refrigerator, turn it upside down so that the water runs off and rinses off the crystals, and this procedure must be repeated ten times. In the new trailer, which Ruslan is building together with the Leroy Merlin company, he used a modern 45W compressor auto-refrigerator. This level of power consumption does not pose any particular problems: Ruslan installed two solar panels and a 200 Ah battery on the roof of the trailer. An inverter with a power of 3 kW (it is located under the surface into which the plate is embedded) allows you not to be too nervous about the available power.

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Cans for clean water are located under the sink. Ruslan deliberately refused the built-in tank. He explains it this way: “Well, let's say there is a spring. I took the cans, came, filled them, put them on. And with a stationary tank, you will need to bring canisters, and then pour them into the filler neck. Pump it up? So it is not always possible to drive close to the water ”. But in the new trailer, which he is building with Leroy Merlin, Ruslan nevertheless hung a reel with a 20-meter hose and a submersible pump "Malysh" outside. This is all connected to tanks inside the trailer, and there is a filler neck.

Experience, son of difficult mistakes

Naturally, the kitchenette is equipped with a two-burner gas hob. But at first she had to perform not only the functions of a cooking device ... On his first route Ruslan fell off with an unfinished trailer. He himself explains it this way:

All summer I was digging, building a trailer, and "the poet's soul could not bear it." It was so offensive: 9 months of the year you are waiting for summer, and now the summer has passed, and I did not see it. And then I realized that I needed to break loose and go. Actually, this is how the idea of the project "From edge to edge" was born. The first stage, from November to March, I drove alone, with a dog, 26 regions.

On the trip, he broke off without installing the planned autonomous heater, so he had to heat the trailer with a gas stove, well, in order not to get burned, open the ventilation and leave a crack in the window. As a result, he still got crazy, but that's another story ... And before that, on the very first cold night, he ran out of gas in the cylinder.

I woke up - cold! Overboard - minus twenty-five. My dog is freezing! I wrapped the dog up in two sleeping bags, took out a generator and a hair dryer, set it to 600 degrees, and we saved ourselves until the morning.

The result of this adventure was the Planar diesel heater registered in the trailer, with which Ruslan is very pleased:

On the go, you lower the temperature to 5-7 degrees, 5-10 minutes before stopping you open the application in your phone, start it, set it to 22 degrees and press “start”. While you park, you go in - and in the trailer there are already those +22!

Some options appeared in the trailer as the experience gained - the one that is "the son of difficult mistakes." For example, in the Caucasus, in Kabardino-Balkaria, Ruslan almost lost his trailer, and in the truest sense of the word. I set up a camp, went to the koshara to talk with the shepherds, and upon returning in the dark I could not see my "caravan" hiding in the folds of the terrain. I found it by the sound, because I left the generator working. After that, Ruslan decided that the trailer should be autonomous in terms of lighting, and installed a five-contact relay with a switch. If you want - the dimensions are lit from the car, if you want - from the trailer battery. The side lights themselves in the form of LED strips, located along the edges of the trailer, are really visible from afar.

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The last stage of construction was legalization and official registration. It turned out that getting state numbers is quite simple: after all, from the point of view of the authorities, a house on a trailer is just a load. Naturally, it is strictly forbidden to transport people in it.

How much does it cost to build a house

The work on the arrangement of the mobile home has not yet been completed. So, a flow-through gas water heater and a shower should appear in the trailer. The pallet is already there, but the drain to it has not yet been made. And Ruslan also wants to make an L-shaped bench that can be folded back so that it looks like a desk. It will be possible to put a laptop on it and work, sitting right on the unfolded bed. An awning awning will appear above the entrance. Surely Ruslan will have to deal more seriously with the issue of protection from mosquitoes, horseflies and other midges, especially if he goes on a summer route through the eastern regions. At present, he has only mosquito nets on the windows, which are temporarily fastened using double-sided tape and Velcro tape (in common parlance - Velcro). But the doorway has no protection from flying evil spirits ...

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Well, now the most serious question is about the budget for building such a trailer. The living module itself from the available materials will cost about 100,000 rubles, but this is without the chassis. Chassis - 25,000 more, windows - 20,000 each, heater 20,000, gas stove - about 5,000, sink - 600 rubles, awning - 45,000, pump - 5,000 rubles, Barrier water filter - 6,000 rubles, solar panels - 15,000 each, controller - 4,000 ... In total, about 350-400 thousand, provided that everything is done by hand.

Expensive? But the pleasure is worth it. Here's some simple arithmetic. Ruslan traveled from November to March ... Now let's calculate: 500 rubles a day is the cheapest hostel. For 4 months - 60,000. Eat in a cafe once a day - 1,000 rubles on average. This is another 120,000, and together - 180,000. But for 180,000 it is already possible to build a house on wheels, albeit with a minimum of amenities. And the most important thing is that where you stayed - there is a house, and with a hostel - you want it or not, you need to drag to the city, and even find it, this hostel. Otherwise - either spend the night in the car, or sleep in a tent ...

There will be campers - there will be campgrounds

I could not help asking Ruslan: why, in fact, is he doing all this: he built one "caravan", is building a second, plans to build large houses on a semitrailer for a pickup truck and on a chassis of a heavy truck, maintains a blog, arranges master classes ...

According to him, he pursues three main goals with his projects. First, to popularize Russia as a vacation and travel destination. To make a feasible contribution to the development of such a tourist segment as auto tourism. And finally, to the extent possible, popularize "caravanning", because we have a "loopback problem". We do not develop the infrastructure providing for auto-tourism, because auto-tourism itself is not developed, and auto-tourism does not develop, because the infrastructure is not developed. Because, according to Ruslan (and I can only support them), we have practically no campgrounds.

How so? - you ask. In our south, you go, and along the road there are solid signs: camping "At Uncle Vasya", "At Uncle Petit", "At Tatiana" ... But they have nothing to do with camping. These are just paid parking lots. A real campsite is a cultivated area divided into blocks, where caravaners, campers, cyclists and tents stand separately. Because the culture of recreation is different for everyone. A camperist, as a rule, does not stay in one place for more than a couple of days. Caravaners, on the other hand, more often act according to the scheme "arrived, unhooked and hung at one point for a week." So they need to be separated: it’s not very good when you have a bunch of children, a dog, everyone is running, playing, and the campers now and then ride back and forth.

Besides, camping is a service. This is an electricity connection, Wi-Fi, the ability to drain gray water and refuel clean. In any case, the campsite should have a laundry room, showers, normal toilets. Then there are all sorts of spas, baths, saunas, etc., stationary barbecues and gazebos for relaxation ... There should be an entertainment program, a cultural program ... On the campground there should be an opportunity to hire a guide, rent bicycles ... But we have such campings , consider it, and no, except for camping in Suzdal. The Moscow camping is just a staging post. There are showers, but it's just a very tight parking lot, literally side by side. You cannot stretch the awning, put the chaise lounge ...

Is it difficult to build a mobile home on the basis of a conventional car trailer? What materials can this trailer-house-cottage be built from? What are its minimum dimensions? What interior layout will allow the most efficient use of the interior space? Let's try to find answers to this list of questions.

Goals

A small country cottage is probably the most widespread hobby in the post-Soviet space over the past half century. The area of cities is growing every year, and areas are naturally moving away from the center of settlements. Distances are sometimes measured in tens of kilometers; the most comfortable way to overcome them is to drive your own car.

At the same time, not all summer residents are ready to turn a small plot into a place of permanent residence. The maximum that an average city family can decide on is to spend the night on their site once a week. Building for the sake of this overnight stay is a capital house - a dubious undertaking; sleeping in a car is very uncomfortable ...

For summer residents who have basic skills in working with a power tool, homemade caravan trailers are often the way out.

We have to study one of these structures, having become acquainted with the materials used and design solutions.

Acknowledgments: The photographs used in this article were kindly uploaded by one of the regulars on the League of Caravaners forum.
The author's work was reduced only to clarifying some technical subtleties.

Choice of materials

In most cases, a single-axle trailer with a maximum load of no more than a ton becomes the basis on which a compact caravan-caravan is built. Taking into account the weight of household items and a couple of people, our choice is a dacha trailer weighing up to 750 kg.

The weight limitation affects the choice of material.

We will make the frame of the building from a pine bar with a cross section of 50 mm.
The walls are made of 10 mm plywood (moisture resistant or impregnated to reduce the hygroscopicity of the material and prevent it from rotting); the floor is 12 mm. It is also used for construction inside.
External cladding - galvanized steel. Sheets are hemmed to the frame bar with self-tapping screws; the overlaps are additionally sealed with silicone sealant. The outer corners are reinforced with an aluminum corner - again sealed with silicone.

What to choose as insulation, laid between the inner and outer layers of plywood - we leave it to the reader to decide. Here is the comparative thermal conductivity of popular heaters:

Nuance: glass wool will inevitably cake over time.
Better to use tough insulation.

Dimensions (edit)

A reasonable minimum of the size of the trailer required for our purposes is 2300x1600 mm. Such dimensions will make it possible to build a fairly comfortable sleeping place for two people inside and leave some space for a table under a washbasin and / or a gas stove.

A two-axle caravan trailer will provide much more comfort; however, the price of such a trailer will be twice or three times more. Its dimensions (up to 4.5 meters in length) allow you to build a full-fledged toilet room.

A reasonable minimum building height is generally 2 meters. The height can be adjusted depending on the size of the owners: it is clear that a very tall person does not want to constantly cling to the ceiling with the crown of his head.

Building

So let's get started. How is a dacha built from a trailer with your own hands?

Floor, bottom rail

The sides are completely dismantled. Only a flat area remains from the trailer. If the horizontal base is sufficiently rigid, the floor joists and harness can be attached directly to it; It is better to weld a thin flexible sheet with a frame made of a professional pipe with a section of 50x25 mm.
Then the lower strapping of a bar, laid along the perimeter, is fixed to the base with bolts; the side bars are connected with logs with a pitch of 20 cm (for 12 mm plywood).

Alternatively, the entire structure can be assembled at the stand and only then pulled to the base of the trailer.

The lags are attached to the strapping with a galvanized corner; the bar must be impregnated with hot linseed oil twice.

Tip: instead of drying oil heated in a water bath, you can use cold oil.
In this case, after applying each layer, the bar is warmed up with a building hairdryer.

Insulation is laid between the lags; then the floor is covered with plywood, which is attracted by self-tapping screws.

Frame

The instructions for assembling the frame are no different from the construction of the lower strapping: the bar is connected by corners with self-tapping screws. Before or after assembly, the tree is impregnated with linseed oil. Do not be afraid that the frame will not be rigid enough: the sheathing will give the structure strength.

Sheathing, insulation

The finished frame begins to be sheathed from the inside. The plywood is attracted by self-tapping screws 32 mm long in increments of about 25 cm. The self-tapping screws are only galvanized: in damp weather, black steel will inevitably decorate the walls with untidy rusty streaks.

Three nuances:

Holes for self-tapping screws are pre-drilled and countersunk so that the hats do not cling to clothes. An alternative is the use of self-tapping screws with half-countersunk heads.

Plywood from the inside must be sanded before varnishing and after applying the first layer. Any moisture will raise pile on the top veneer layer, which will make the surface rough.
The volume of work will be quite large, so it is better to use a grinder - even the simplest, vibration one. If there is no electricity where you are building, there is always a way out: renting a diesel generator for a summer residence costs from 1000 rubles a day.
The outer side and ends of plywood also need protective impregnation. And in this case, the cheapest and most practical option is two layers of hot drying oil.
The insulation is fixed in the grooves formed by the frame and the inner lining, after which it is sheathed on the outside with plywood rolled on both sides.

The door is assembled similarly to walls and hung on galvanized hinges; a regular door lock or a pair of latches are used as a lock - inside and outside.

The last stage is the external galvanized finish. It is fixed with self-tapping screws 25 mm long in 10 cm increments along all the frame bars; then the corners are closed with a corner. Do not forget about the sealant: it will protect the corners and joints from water leakage.

In the photo - the cladding, ready for painting.

Window

If you want your miniature home to have light windows, no problem.

The opening is provided even at the stage of construction of the frame. It is girded with a bar with a section of the same 50x50 mm.
As an outer glazing bead, a duralumin corner is used, which is screwed flush with the outer skin with self-tapping screws. The seat for the corner is pre-coated with sealant.
A piece of plexiglass cut to the size of the opening sits on the sealant and is fixed from the inside with a glazing bead from the same duralumin corner.

Internal layout

Our choice is a convertible seat bed and a folding table. The transformation mechanism will make the pictures understandable.

Useful little things

An alternative to galvanized plywood - external sheathing made of profiled sheet... In a similar scheme, country houses are often built from block containers.
Do-it-yourself cottage trailer repair usually comes down to periodic painting of galvanized... Old paint can be removed with removers. In those few cases when the wheels, fenders or suspension of the trailer are damaged, spare parts for the caravan are bought at the nearest auto shop.

The simplest way to organize ventilation is to provide a pair of hatches closed with a mosquito net (bottom and top) in the door.

Conclusion

Hello dear friends! Well, who among us does not like to sit by the fire on the bank of the river with a barbecue and cognac on a warm summer evening? Already salivating) And then how to spend the night in a tent ... But humanity is more and more striving for civilized rest. Even alone with nature, we no longer part with the benefits of city life. Today we are talking about a mobile home. Meet the trailer cottage!

What a beast

It is an equipped RV with maximum interior equipment that clings to a passenger car. As a rule, inside it there is a kitchen, bedroom, living room, bathroom, shower room. All this can be placed using multifunctional transformable furniture, as well as competent planning.

There are not many offers on the sale of trailers on the modern market. Foreign representatives represent the lion's share. On the Russian market, residential caravans are made in units, but they do not come close in comparison with Western models.

In the west, campers have been making for a long time, hence the experience. Our culture of caravanning is just developing. That is why in Russia you can often see homemade motorhomes converted from a light trailer.

crazy hands

A huge assortment of building materials allows any artisan owner of a light trailer to create his own summer cottage on wheels. Indeed, there is nothing tricky here, you just need to turn on your ingenuity.

As a basis, we will take an ordinary light trailer with a slightly enlarged body. The size of the body is 240 x 120 cm. To begin with, a frame is made from a 50x50 mm bar. Then the frame is sheathed with a galvanized sheet of metal, from which the corrugated board is made.

It is advisable to insulate the distance between the lags with at least foam, then the heat inside the motorhome will be kept like in a thermos. The inner lining can be made to your taste: wood, plastic, lining, plywood and other materials.

It would also be nice to separate the bedroom from the kitchen. To do this, in the back of the booth, you need to put a partition, leaving about 190 cm for the bedroom.It all depends on the height of the vacationer. In the sleeping area, the entire area will be occupied by a mattress. On the partition above the location of the legs, you can hang comfortable storage cabinets and even hang a TV, since we are talking about civilization)))

On the side of the kitchen, you can place a small built-in refrigerator, a gas stove and a small sink with a washstand. And over them also hang boxes for groceries. The space under the countertop can be used to store a gas cylinder, water

Yes, I almost forgot about the doors and windows. There are also options here, and they are also from human life. Sometimes they are made like at home plastic, but only small. There is an option to find windows in a company dealing with garage doors. Have you seen such windows as portholes? And you can insert roller shutters or roller shutters into doorways. They can also be ordered from windows.

A roof rack can be placed on the roof, which can also be multifunctional. It can carry various loads, put on it an aerodynamic autobox, bike racks with bicycles, and whatever. You can also attach a device to it and use it as a sun and rain shade.

And if you also adapt some kind of awning to this visor and fix it with a peg in the ground, you get an additional wall. And if you make three of them, you get an additional room.

In general, here who has enough imagination and opportunities. But the idea is clear, I hope. The advantages of such campers are that there is no need for additional categories, but we stand them on the basis of an ordinary light trailer with a total weight of up to 750 kg; they are relatively inexpensive. See photos of examples of such motorhomes.

Some travelers and outdoor enthusiasts prefer DIY caravans to ready-made ones. The choice is explained not only by the lower cost of homemade structures - you can think over the layout and equip the interior as you wish. Before you build a home on wheels with your own hands, you should learn more about the process of making motorhomes, decide which option is better: a caravan or a camper.

Original motorhome

The device of a motorhome and a caravan

Regardless of the type, the motorhome should have minimal amenities: sleeping places for each traveler and an area for cooking and eating.

In addition, inside a minibus or trailer there may be:

wash basin;
gas stove connected to the cylinder;
shelves, lockers and other storage systems.

RVs designed for long journeys usually have a bathroom with a small shower.

Making a motorhome for yourself, with your own hands, you can provide for the presence of a bathroom and everything else that may be required on a trip.

DIY motorhome making

A do-it-yourself mobile home is made on the basis of a van or trailer. Buses are suitable for this purpose - a spacious cabin, a high roof make it a good candidate for remodeling.

Before converting a trailer or van, find out the conditions for registering caravans with the traffic police.

Motorhome bus

The construction of a mobile home consists of several stages:

drafting a project;
carrying out external and internal work;
communication device;
placement of furniture.

First of all, you need to decide what to take as a basis: a trailer or a van. The first option is more labor-intensive - the van already has walls and a roof, and in the trailer they will need to be built independently.

DIY motorhome based on a car

To create a mobile home, a car or, for example, an old bus is used. A vehicle for conversion into a house is chosen based on financial capabilities and the number of people who will live inside the building.

Depending on the number of residents, they think over the design of the mobile home, as well as its content. To make it easier to work, make a plan.

RV based on a cargo van

Before making a motorhome, you need to stock up on the materials and tools necessary for work:

grinder;
car paint;
screwdriver;
welding machine;
thermal insulation;
finishing materials (plastic panels, lining or other);
moisture resistant plywood;
carpet;
fasteners (screws, nails, dowels);
polyurethane foam;
primer;
paint brushes;
sealant;
metal brush.

Outdoor work

When the drawing is ready, the design is thought out, they proceed to external work. Would need:

Clean the car body from rust and other damage. If paint has come off the surfaces, clean it off.
Make several holes in the van for the windows, if they were not there initially. At the same time, cut out ventilation holes.
Determine the location and cut openings for exhaust gases, drain holes and other communications.
Cover cut areas, areas where paint has been removed with a primer to prevent rust formation. Wait until it is completely dry.
Paint the exterior of the van.

RV based van

Internal work

If you plan to separate the cab from the living compartment. Then the partition is mounted either with fasteners, or the metal frame is welded to the body with a welding machine.

First, the body is covered with heat-insulating material. Any insulation designed for residential premises is suitable. To fix the material on the walls and ceiling, hardware is used made of the same metal as the body - this technique will help protect the car from rust.

If the selected insulation does not tolerate contact with water, it will be necessary to additionally lay waterproofing.

Insert windows. Move on to wall decoration. For cladding, we choose moisture-resistant plywood. The sheets must be quite thick to withstand a serious load - they will subsequently be used for attaching cabinets, shelves, and furniture.

Work starts from the ceiling. Having fixed the sheets there, they sheathe the walls. Further, a wooden beam with a thickness of the height of the heat-insulating material is attached to the floor, insulation plates are laid between them. The floor is covered with plywood, fastened to the timber with self-tapping screws.

The salon in which the kitchen is located and the shower and toilet should be separated using a frame partition.

Plywood can be painted, varnished, or carpeted. The latter option also serves as additional thermal insulation. A special glue is used to fix the carpet.

The next step is the device of communications in accordance with a pre-drawn scheme: electricity, heating and ventilation. The cable, water and gas pipes are laid either on top of the inner lining, or they are mounted simultaneously with the installation of the insulation inside, making holes for the outlet of communications.

Furniture

The furniture for the motorhome is selected individually. The necessary furnishings include:

table with a bench for the dining area;
bed or sofa bed;
hanging shelves and lockers for storing supplies, clothes, bedding;
washing.

Since the furniture is subject to increased stress during the movement of a mobile home, it must be of high quality, strong, have reliable fittings and a minimum of moving elements. Make sure that the cabinet door will not open during a sudden turn and the contents will not spill over the cabin.

All furniture must be firmly fixed, it is desirable that it be fixed at two points: on the floor and on the wall.

Interior solutions in a motorhome

DIY caravan from a trailer

Making a mobile home from a trailer is more difficult than remodeling a car. In this case, you will need to build from scratch the base of the floor, walls, roof.

For the construction of a camper, single-axle trailers are most often chosen that can withstand a load of up to 1 ton. Therefore, it is necessary to select materials for the frame, taking into account the weight of the future structure.

A camper trailer is erected using a frame:

metal;
tree;
sandwich panels.

The most affordable and relatively lightweight material for making a house on a trailer is wood. It is easier to work with and does not require special tools to connect the elements.

DIY vintage camper trailer